Copyright 2002 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San Francisco Chronicle
JULY 11, 2002, THURSDAY, FINAL EDITIONSECTION: NEWS; Pg. A6
LENGTH:
1078 words
HEADLINE: House OKs plan to
arm pilots;Despite administration's
rejection, support is growing in Senate
SOURCE:
Chronicle Washington Bureau
BYLINE: Edward
Epstein
DATELINE: Washington
BODY:Flouting the wishes of President Bush, the
Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Wednesday to
arm
commercial airline
pilots in cockpits as a way of combatting
terrorism.
The legislation, which passed 310-113, would
permit any of the nation's more than 70,000 commercial pilots to be trained how
to use a pistol and allowed to carry one on the job.
The original bipartisan deal called for a two-year test program that
would have allowed only 2 percent of the pilots to participate, but
rank-and-file House members voted 250-175 to sharply expand the proposed
program.
In any form, the plan faces an uncertain
future in the Senate. A key member, Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., adamantly
opposes the idea of allowing pilots to carry guns and might bottle up the idea.
However, Senate support for arming pilots is growing.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., backed a Republican-sponsored bill Wednesday, at
least as a temporary step. California's other Democratic senator, Dianne
Feinstein, supports the concept of arming pilots but has not given support to
any specific bill, aides said.
Secretary of
Transportation Norm Mineta and John Magaw, head of the new Transportation
Security Administration, have rejected the push to provide pilots with pistols.
Instead, they advocate a series of other measures including securing cockpit
doors, mounting video cameras in passenger cabins with monitors in cockpits,
hiring more armed air marshals and possibly providing plane crews with such
nonlethal weapons as stun guns.
The House bill passed
Wednesday would require the administration, which for now has the final say on
arming pilots, to start the test program within two months by seeking
volunteers, giving preference to those pilots with previous military or law
enforcement experience. The pilots would be deputized as "federal flight deck
officers," a step designed to lessen airlines' fears about insurance liability
issues.
Flight attendants, whose unions have voiced
skepticism about arming pilots, would get self-defense training.
"This is a small step forward. It really should have been done long
ago," said House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska.
"Do you really think that 9/11 would have happened if our
pilots were armed, as they should have been?" Young asked during the House
debate.
The committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. James
Oberstar, D-Minn., said he dropped his opposition to the bill after it was
scaled back to a two-year test and after pilots' unions appealed to him. The
unions say they want guns in the face of Bush's order that military F-16s shoot
down hijacked planes to prevent another Sept. 11-like incident in which planes
were used as bombs.
"As I discussed the matter, I came
to be persuaded that the case was made that under the current circumstances of
incomplete security, the appeal of firearms in the flight deck had some
viability," Oberstar said.
Boxer said she will support
arming pilots as a temporary measure. "I have decided that until I am satisfied
with the number of air marshals on commercial flights, this bill is a necessity
-- indeed, it is a matter of life and death," she said.
The government will not disclose how many marshals there are nor say
what flights they serve on.
Opponents said the idea of
arming pilots, which Congress deferred to the administration when it passed
aviation security legislation in November, was dangerous and premature.
"Congress is experimenting with the lives of the flying
public," said Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose. "This mandates a pilot program before
the completion of even the most basic studies about the impact of shots being
fired in planes."
He said those studies would show the
results of shooting into planes' computers and other controls and of the
potential danger of depressurizing cabins.
"Instead of
giving pistols to pilots, let's keep our eye on the basics of airline security,"
added Honda.
It is estimated that the program to train
and arm pilots would cost $47 million over five years, with the cost picked up
by the federal government.
Magaw told a House committee
this week that he remains opposed to arming pilots because aviators should focus
on flying their planes, not battling hijackers.
"They
need to maintain control of that airplane, no matter what's going on in back. .
. . If the cockpit door is secure and there are cameras in the cabin they can
control the plane and land it safely," he said.
But
Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., said the July Fourth shooting at the El Al airline counter
at Los Angeles International Airport showed the value of having armed and
trained security personnel at airports and on planes. An El Al security guard
shot and killed a man who had killed two people and wounded four.
"You have absolute faith that there will never be a
situation like Sept. 11," Barr told Magaw. "I don't think we can guarantee the
American people that."
----------------------------------------------------
CHART:
HOW BAY AREA HOUSE MEMBERS VOTED
The House voted 310 - 113 Wednesday to allow the nation's more than 70,000
commercial pilots to receive weapons training and carry a handgun on the job.
A "yes" vote ordered the administration to begin the two-year test program.
District/Member Yes No
1 Mike Thompson X D-St. Helena
3 Doug Ose X R-Sacramento
6 Lynn Woolsey X D-Petaluma
7 George Miller X D-Martinez
8 Nancy Pelosi X D-San Francisco
9 Barbara Lee X D-Oakland
10 Ellen Tauscher X D-Walnut Creek
12 Tom Lantos X D-San Mateo
13 Pete Stark X D-Fremont
14 Anna Eshoo X D-Atherton
15 Mike Honda X D-San Jose
16 Zoe Lofgren X D-San Jose
17 Sam Farr X D-Carmel
Chronicle Graphic
E-mail Edward Epstein at
eepstein@sfchronicle.com.
GRAPHIC: CHART: SEE
END OF TEXT
LOAD-DATE: July 11, 2002
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